ERIS and the Judgment of Paris

[art: Erika Sequin]Eris’ recent prominence due to her tight aspects to outer planets Uranus (☌) and Jupiter (☍) is bringing up several themes in our lives that are reminiscent of her story. Her semisquare to this Pisces Solar Eclipse, triggered by transiting Mars on Sunday, certainly made for a spectacular ending to the annual Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, USA. A literal example of “LaLa Land” becoming eclipsed by “Moonlight” sending shocking strife and mayhem through the customary ceremonial procedure…

Eris In Myth

OK, so myth goes something like this:

There was a wedding banquet, thrown by Zeus, a huge ceremonial convention of great pomp and significance, where all the gods would show up. However, due to her wild, unruly nature Eris was not invited. It was assumed that her presence might just fuck up the entire party. Spurned by this snubbish unwelcomeness, and true to her scornful nature, Eris decided to crash the event anyway, if only to throw in a highly-prized golden apple from the blissful Garden of Hesperides. On the inscription was “to the hottest goddess of them all”.

This created a scramble and great ruckus amongst the contenders, turning the affair into a veritable bitchfight, especially between Aphrodite (♀), Hera (Juno) and Athena (Pallas) who each made insistent claims to the apple for their beauty. Asked to adjudicate on who was the “hottest”, Zeus respectfully refrained, since his interests in goddesses were wide and varied and he did not want to cause waves for himself. Instead, he called on local Trojan boy, Paris to make the call – a man praised and renowned for his fair judgement.

In a sense, this becomes the first ever ‘Miss Universe’ contest, with all three goddesses putting it on for their young judge. Stripped naked, each quite beautiful in their own unique way, they also put out certain worldly goodies that might persuade their judge to choose them.

Hera, the mother of all goddesses, and wife of presidential god Zeus, is powerful enough to promise to make Paris King of the world if he chooses her.Athena, goddess of law and order, whose beauty is not sexualised but holds her femininity secondary to her wisdom, offers Paris a glorious and respected career as a military ruler.Aphrodite (Venus), goddess of the allure and sexuality, promises to fix Paris up with the most gorgeous mortal woman on earth – Helen of Sparta (who incidentally happens to be married to King Menelaus).

After some thoughtful deliberation, but mostly ignited by his loins, Paris chooses to prize Eris’ golden apple to Aphrodite.

Of course this causes all sorts of trouble, especially when Paris steals his prized Spartan queen away to Troy, sparking off the Trojan War – a 10-year epic saga, which involved much decisive interference from the scorned and enraged other two goddesses.

MORAL: It doesn’t take much to start strife and discord.

ERIS in transit

Eris’ extremely inclined (44°) and radically eccentric orbit means that she often reaches far out of the ecliptic path to bring through abstract consciousness from wonderfully unusual realms. Initially these bring great discord to existing notions or structures in our consciousness, especially if we are too ego-attached during the transitionary period of her diabolical influence. Due to her ultra slow motion, her intense insistence on melting us to the bone, grinding us down to our core essence – the nothingness within – she helps expose us to a new level of universal vastness.

Of course, to those who are obsessively hung up on themselves, steeped in arrogance and self-importance, she applies an intensely gradual messing with their deepest understanding, throwing their entire universe into a complete tizzy. Extensive chaos and disarray ensues until the new consciousness is accepted and integrated, eventually raising things to a new order and social stability.

Eris’ vast distance from the Sun (100 times further than earth/3 times as far as Pluto) gives Eris a ~558 year orbit, (310 more than Pluto). Interestingly, after only one full revolution, Eris has only, just this year, returning to the exact same degree (23°♈04′) that she was in 1492, the year Columbus discovered the New World, an expedition that physically proved that the world is round (not flat), thus launching the age of discovery.

Of course, this had a tremendously disruptive influence on both the inhabitants of the new and old worlds. It launched the entire human race into a 500-year global sprawl, one that commenced with the formal invasion of the Americas – a pristine world of overwhelming natural beauty and abundance and of precious few people, threatening the natural existence of an entire hemisphere where, especially in the Aztec/Mayan civilizations (Central America) and the Incas (Peru), human beings indeed trod lightly upon the planet and were connected to their nomadic, shamanic ways.

Currently Eris is being conjuncted by Mars and Uranus, in opposition to Jupiter. It stands to reason that we might observe some ‘strife and upset’ in our midst, to say the least. Let it be known that where egos are fastened to a certain sense of expectation, tender hearts could become devastated, perhaps beyond repair.